Sending email to members from leaders

I'm a High Priests Group Leader and want to email the members of our quorum. I know I can do it on lds.tools but only if I use my iphone or ipad. Is there a way to email members of my ward high priest group using leader and clerk resources on lds.org?

growlesmt wrote:I'm a High Priests Group Leader and want to email the members of our quorum. I know I can do it on lds.tools but only if I use my iphone or ipad. Is there a way to email members of my ward high priest group using leader and clerk resources on lds.org?

If I understand correctly, you should be able to do that:

• Go to lds.org
  Sign in to your LDS Account.
  Go to your ward directory.
  Make sure it's showing your ward and not the stake or another unit.
  In the left-hand menu, click on 'Ward Organizations'.
  In the second column from the left, click on 'High Priests'.
  In the right-hand column, click on 'Email all High Priests'.

That should produce a pop-up from which you can copy-paste a list of email addresses.

(Disclaimer: I'm a ward membership clerk, but I can see that list, and I'm of the understanding that quorum/group leadership has that capability, as well.)

Can you email the entire ward / branch?

The Send a Message application will allow you to email the entire ward/branch (or a subset of the entire ward/branch). I would advise caution - just because members have their email address on their profile doesn't mean they want a bunch of emails for things they may not be interested in.

I'm not sure what would happen if a bunch of members (who happen to have the same ISP) mark your email blast as spam.

davesudweeks wrote:I'm not sure what would happen if a bunch of members (who happen to have the same ISP) mark your email blast as spam.

My guess is that if a number of members with the same provider (gmail, yahoo, etc) were to mark it as spam, others who use the same provider may not see future emails.

So, I'd second the caution about the frequency and content of the emails.

I'm a Ward Clerk and I'm not seeing the ability to email groups of membership. (i.e. Elder's Quorum, Relief Society, etc.) Is this something that was removed from Ward Clerks' abilities? help!!

echapin wrote:I'm a Ward Clerk and I'm not seeing the ability to email groups of membership. (i.e. Elder's Quorum, Relief Society, etc.) Is this something that was removed from Ward Clerks' abilities? help!!

In LCR --> [Applications] --> [Send a Message]

klricks wrote:...
In LCR --> [Applications] --> [Send a Message]

Seconding that path. Also, the access table says Ward Clerks have access to that function. Assistant Ward Clerk - Membership also has access to that function.

Could this be used to send a ward newsletter and if so,how could members unsubscribe?

davidpladgeman wrote:Could this be used to send a ward newsletter and if so,how could members unsubscribe?

Assuming there's a good answer to the question of how to unsubscribe, there's another issue that may warrant a bit of caution. Currently, there appears to be a defect in the 'Send a Message' tool in LCR, which manifests itself if a PDF file is sent as an attachment. This is a copy-paste (with indentation added) of the part header from a message I received from a member of my bishopric:

• >>>> ------=_Part_1474758_465373419.1544593623998
  >>>> Content-Type: text/plain; name="Ward FHE flyer.pdf"
  >>>> Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
  >>>> Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Ward FHE flyer.pdf"

The defect is that the "text/plain" should be "application/pdf". The erroneous "text/plain" content type specifier causes standards-compliant MUAs to try to display the message as plain text, which quickly goes into the weeds as the PDF attachment's binary data is displayed as if it were plain text.

I plan to report the defect in hope that the first-level service missionary will take the report seriously and send it up the chain rather than send back the usual canned response that I need to delete my cookies and clear my browser's cache.

davidpladgeman wrote:Could this be used to send a ward newsletter and if so,how could members unsubscribe?

The only way for members to "unsubscribe" would be to remove their email address from their contact information. Or whomever is sending the newsletter can manually delete email addresses from each email distribution for members who do not desire to receive the newsletters.

Bear in mind that if too many members mark the ward's newsletter as spam, their ISP could begin blocking emails from the individual sending them, which could affect their ability to communicate other messages via email as well. I advise caution regarding sending mass emails to ward members who did not request (or agree) to be included in the distribution.

davidpladgeman wrote:Could this be used to send a ward newsletter and if so,how could members unsubscribe?

Yes you could use it to send a newsletter or whatever.
You can compose the text online or copy&paste or add an attachment.

Regarding subscribing... You would need to maintain your own list of un-subscribers and manually remove the person(s) each time.
(I don't know why anyone who has their email address listed in LDS.org would object to getting a newsletter??? If they object they can remove their email address and get nothing).

Once you have composed your message you choose recipients from the pick-lists. eg all members
Then a window will pop up showing the list.
For your purpose it would probably be easier to click the [select all] button, then referencing your own list of un-subscribers, scroll through the list and un-select anyone who does not want the newsletter.

klricks wrote:(I don't know why anyone who has their email address listed in LDS.org would object to getting a newsletter??? If they object they can remove their email address and get nothing).

Oh, I can imagine why. The member may want their email in the system so others can contact them - perhaps in relation to their calling or responsibilities. But that doesn't mean that they want to receive frequent emails that doesn't contain information pertinent to them. (Such as Primary or Youth announcements to a childless member.) Or is viewed as being just so much blah, blah, blah.

russellhltn wrote:

klricks wrote:(I don't know why anyone who has their email address listed in LDS.org would object to getting a newsletter??? If they object they can remove their email address and get nothing).

Oh, I can imagine why. ...

I'll second that.

russellhltn wrote:

klricks wrote:(I don't know why anyone who has their email address listed in LDS.org would object to getting a newsletter??? If they object they can remove their email address and get nothing).

Oh, I can imagine why. The member may want their email in the system so others can contact them - perhaps in relation to their calling or responsibilities. But that doesn't mean that they want to receive frequent emails that doesn't contain information pertinent to them. (Such as Primary or Youth announcements to a childless member.) Or is viewed as being just so much blah, blah, blah.

This is me, exactly.
"The problem with the person who is good with a hammer, is they tend to see everything as a nail." Those who like lots of digital communication tend to think everyone else wants it, too...

The challenge for leaders is: how do we learn to communicate with different members in the way that is effective FOR THEM? For some units, mass emails or texts are perfect - for other units they are perfect for a subset of members and not for others. If we were ministering correctly, we would know which members need mass emails or texts, which need phone calls, which need postal mailings, and which need a personalized visit as the communication method.

rmrichesjr wrote: Content-Type: text/plain; name="Ward FHE flyer.pdf"

I didn't work on the attachments, so I'm not sure what the code does there. I'll have QA double-check this.

There was a bug that was related to this. It sounds like it was fixed about a week ago. Are you still seeing this issue?

scgallafent wrote:There was a bug that was related to this. It sounds like it was fixed about a week ago. Are you still seeing this issue?

Cool!!!

The most recent message I received through that mechanism was on December 11. When I have a chance, I'll see if I can send a message to myself to verify.

davidpladgeman wrote:Could this be used to send a ward newsletter and if so,how could members unsubscribe?

I send out a weekly newsletter to over 300 members each week using Send a Message. Occasionally I will have someone request that their name be removed from the mailing list. I am the membership clerk so I remove their email address from their record. I try to retain a copy of the email address in case it is ever needed again. And BTW, Send a Massage has improved much in the last year, allowing color text and other formatting.

rmrichesjr wrote:

scgallafent wrote:There was a bug that was related to this. It sounds like it was fixed about a week ago. Are you still seeing this issue?

Cool!!!

The most recent message I received through that mechanism was on December 11. When I have a chance, I'll see if I can send a message to myself to verify.

Thanks again for the news that the bug is fixed. I finally got a few minutes to send myself a message with a PDF attachment, and the Content-Type strings appeared to be correct.

Where do I find this Send a Message feature?

Leader and Clerk Resources > Applications > Send a Message

Is there a way to send an email to multiple recipients (e.g., all EQ members) from within the LDS Tools app? Or is the only way via web (i.e., LCR)?

Yes. Select the Elders Quorum and then the All Members tab. In the upper right are four icon links. The left one is for sending text messages and the one to its right is for sending emails. You then either select individuals or select all.

I am using the android app for these instructions.

Anyone like me finding this later, the way to do it now is Leader and Clerk Resources -> Applications tab -> Send a message

Is there a way to have the "out-of-unit" members be included automatically in the ward groups? When I select LCR>Applications>Send A Message> and I pull up the YM Parents list, the out-of-unit parent doesn't show even though both YM and Parent are in out-of-unit status in the ward directory. I also tried the YM bulk list and out-of-unit young man doesn't appear there. Any fixes to this?

mattrussell wrote:Is there a way to have the "out-of-unit" members be included automatically in the ward groups? When I select LCR>Applications>Send A Message> and I pull up the YM Parents list, the out-of-unit parent doesn't show even though both YM and Parent are in out-of-unit status in the ward directory. I also tried the YM bulk list and out-of-unit young man doesn't appear there. Any fixes to this?

There are no fixes for this. The Send a Message function in LCR only uses the member record contact information for assigned members. The only work-around I know of is to send a separate message using your personal email client to the out-of-unit members.